IT Mythbusting Part 5: Onsite Access Control Is Easier

Traditionally, technology adoption is said to progress in five stages: 1. Innovators, 2. Early Adopters, 3. Early Majority, 4. Late Majority, 5. Laggards. Currently, we are somewhere between stages three and four when it comes to the adoption of cloud computing. In this blog series, we’re taking a look at some common myths still preventing some businesses from making the change.

The fifth and final myth we’re examining in today’s entry is one surrounding data security. According to market analysts, this concern is the primary one preventing CEOs from moving to the cloud, ahead of even performance concerns. Many organizations frequently steer clear from the cloud because they worry that they will be unable to protect mission-critical data and important applications in the cloud with the same level of access control as their applications hosted onsite.

However, cloud-based identity and access management has come a long way in recent times. Not only is there a wide array of cloud identity and management resources available to help centralize management of the disparate cloud applications and infrastructures, but secure hosting providers also usually offer secure access control options such as dual-factor authentication to enable strong security on hosted accounts.

In addition to the more obvious benefits of backup and disaster recovery, cloud computing actually offers an increase in data protection, given state-of-the-art security software, and management is a core competency of cloud hosting providers. Often, enterprise level cloud providers dedicate teams who work on security and compliance as their full-time responsibility.

This is even more necessary if a cloud provider offers services to a more tightly monitored industry, such as healthcare, where legislation exists mandating strict security guidelines. To maintain compliance, cloud hosting providers often partner up with leading security software companies and consultants.

This change has occurred because of customer demand, tightened regulation, advancing technology, and plain business viability. Meanwhile, many businesses more concerned about bringing their own products to market may not allocate enough time or resources for thorough controls, and may miss several best practices in securing their data as a result.

Some important questions to ask your cloud hosting provider or their current clients regarding data security are:

Who has access to my data?

What happens in case of data loss or corruption?

How many data centers do you have for failover purposes?

Do you have an available copy of your Backup and Disaster Recovery Plan?